Leaf from a Book of Hours: Adam and Eve and the Fall of Man (Prefatory Miniature to the Office of the Virgin) (recto)

c. 1510

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France, Rouen, 16th century

Each leaf: 17.9 x 12.8 cm (7 1/16 x 5 1/16 in.)

The Jeanne Miles Blackburn Collection 2001.79.a

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Did You Know?

This leaf came from a highly customized and lavish book of hours made in Rouen, a major center of book production at the time.

Description

Characteristic of the artist's hand, the bright orange-reds combine with deep blues, greens, and an abundance of gold wash in this leaf. He used fine parallel lines or crosshatching in gold to indicate the shading, highlights, and texture of draperies, suggesting some knowledge of printmaking, an art for which Rouen was also an important center. His figures have large, thickly outlined oval faces. This miniature also demonstrates the emerging fashion in both Rouen and Paris for highly involved, Italianate architectural frames: winged putti, swags, urns, garlands, scallop shells, pillasters, and masks. These elements could be assembled in different ways so that no two frames were identical. Rouen in the late 1400s and early 1500s was an established and important center for book production. Richly decorated library texts and books of hours, such as the present leaves, were made in Rouen for sale in the cours des libraires, next to the cathedral.